


Asteria

by maplemood



Category: Ancient Greek Religion & Lore
Genre: Extra Treat, Gen, Gender or Sex Swap, Sisters, Triple Drabble
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-14
Updated: 2019-07-14
Packaged: 2020-06-26 23:42:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19778902
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maplemood/pseuds/maplemood
Summary: Every day her footsteps echo beneath mine. I imagine her furious snorts and her lonely bawls, that what voice she has sounds not unlike my own.





	Asteria

**Author's Note:**

  * For [blue_ringed_octopus](https://archiveofourown.org/users/blue_ringed_octopus/gifts).



> Warning for Greek-mythology-typical weirdness re: the Minotaur's conception.

My sister, who is my mother’s daughter but not my father’s, walks the halls of a great maze while I sleep. This maze, the Labyrinth, coils endlessly under the floors of my father’s palace, and every night I imagine my sister pacing beneath me, memorizing each switchback and turn. I imagine she must be this clever, my sister. I have yet to meet her.

My father doesn’t credit her with any kind of cleverness, but he is a bitter man. He tells me our mother fucked the great bull of Poseidon, which I know to be true. He tells me she did not even bear a son in the bargain, which is, of course, true. He tells me my sister is a beast, ravening and stupid, and I know for all the facts he tells there is no truth in my father, for I know my sister, I know her as though I have already seen her face. Every day her footsteps echo beneath mine. I imagine her furious snorts and her lonely bawls, that what voice she has sounds not unlike my own.

We will meet when I am older and as clever as she is, clever enough to brave the darkness of the Labyrinth. In my bed, within my father’s walls, my father’s city, I imagine that together we might find a way out. That perhaps my sister already has and is only waiting for me. A tunnel through the foundations, and after we’ve squeezed through it I will kiss her snout, her velvety eyelids. I imagine I might even teach her to speak, if we are patient. Then she will call me Ariadne, and I will call her by the name our mother gave her. 

_Asteria. My sister._ I will wind her to me like a thread.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoy this treat; when I saw you'd requested both gender switches and the Minotaur myth I couldn't resist! "Asteria" is actually the name of the Titan goddess of the stars in Greek mythology, but since it's also (as far as I can tell) the female form of "Asterion"--and names get reused all the time in the myths--I decided to use it here.


End file.
